From time to time, golfers have the misfortune of losing a golf ball in a water hazard such as a lake or stream. Golf ball retrievers comprising devices attached to elongated or extensible shafts have been developed to help a golfer recover golf balls from water hazards. Generally, prior art devices are visually aligned with the lost ball and used to scoop the lost ball from the water hazard. Visually guided golf ball retrievers are typically ineffective it it is not possible to visually guide the retriever to the lost ball. More specifically, the problem with prior art devices is that in deep water hazards or water hazards having murky or muddy water it is not possible to recover the golf ball because it cannot be seen.
Golf ball retrievers used by golfers are most conveniently stored in the portion of the golf bag in which the golf clubs are stored. If the golf ball retriever covers a large portion of the opening in the golf bag in which the golf clubs are stored, it is not convenient for golfers to carry in the golf bag.
Conventional golf ball retrievers are designed to collect one ball at a time. Each ball is picked up individually and removed from the water hazard. If more than one ball is seen in the water hazard, the ball retriever must be repeatedly placed in the water hazard for each ball.
It is one objective of the present invention to provide a golf ball retriever which can retrieve golf balls without visual guidance of the retriever.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a golf ball retriever which is capable of retrieving golf balls from a board section of a water hazard.
Another object of the invention is to provide a golf ball retriever which is capable of picking up a plurality of golf balls in a single pass of the retriever.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide a golf ball retriever which can cover a broad area of a water hazard and yet may be conveniently stored in a golf bag.
These objects are achieved and the above noted problems and disadvantages are overcome by the golf ball retriever of the present invention.